Category: World

CHIBA, Japan, Oct 24, 2007 (AFP) – Nissan took the wraps off its all-new GT-R supercar Wednesday, betting that there’s still a market for muscle machines despite soaring petrol prices.The high-performance sports car — the successor to Nissan’s iconic Skyline GT-R — will eventually go on sale worldwide, beginning with Japan in December. Prices start […]

SINGAPORE, Oct 24, 2007 (AFP) – World oil prices fell for the third straight day in Asia on Wednesday, pulling back further from record highs reached last week.Dealers said worries about slowing economic growth have pushed aside fears about tensions between Turkey and Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, which helped push prices sky-high last week. […]

NEW YORK, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Business travel costs around the world are expected to see a big surge in 2008 with air fares pushed up by rising fuel prices and hotels rates squeezed by growing demands, a survey showed Tuesday.The American Express Global Business Travel Forecast said hotel rates are especially pressured in […]

SINGAPORE, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – World oil prices slipped further in Asia on Tuesday as worries over slowing economic growth in the United States shadowed the market, dealers said.New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, was 30 cents lower at 85.72 dollars a barrel. The November contract closed […]

OTTAWA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – Attempts to reduce US dependence on imported oil by adding more ethanol to its gas tanks are only driving up food prices while delivering moot energy benefits, a Canadian bank warned on Monday.Corn prices have already jumped by 60 percent over the past two years as American ethanol producers […]

BANGALORE, India, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Dale Carnegie Training, which has taught business skills to more than eight million professionals worldwide, said Monday it will open its first school in India to make graduates “employable.” The New York-based company tied up with Walchand PeopleFirst to open the “finishing school” in Bangalore to smooth out […]

MANILA, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Free trade, changing diets, and rapid urbanisation is leading to a decline in rice production, one of the world’s leading experts on the crop said.“As prosperous rice-growing countries move toward free trade in agricultural production, they may increasingly find it difficult to sustain producers’ interest in rice farming,” said […]

MUMBAI, Oct 23, 2007 (AFP) – Indian shares surged 4.99 percent Tuesday as investors cheered a move that eased concerns about a proposed regulatory change previously seen as soon limiting purchases by overseas buyers, dealers said. The Mumbai stock exchange Sensex index rose 878.85 points or 4.99 percent to 18,492.84 after the regulator allowed foreign […]

TOKYO, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – The dollar suffered fresh losses in Asian trade Monday, hitting a record low against the euro after US share prices slumped and world finance chiefs refrained from voicing increased concern about currencies. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations on Friday only reiterated that […]

WASHINGTON , Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) – The financial turmoil that erupted earlier this year in the US subprime housing market was “an accident waiting to happen” and could have taken place in any other sector, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said here Sunday.“Credit spreads across all global asset classes had become compressed to […]

WASHINGTON, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) – The head of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Rato, warned Monday there are risks of an “abrupt fall” in the dollar, linked to a loss of confidence in dollar assets.“There are risks that an abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss […]

THE HAGUE, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) – Congolese militia leader Germain Katanga will on Monday become the second person to appear before the International Criminal Court to face accusations of massacring villagers, using child soldiers and sexually enslaving women.In the largely procedural hearing, Katanga, 29, will not be asked to enter a plea on the […]